Woven support for furniture



Jan. 12, 1965 J. A. ASHKOUTI WOVEN SUPPORT FOR FURNITURE 2 sheets-sheetil Filed Sept. 26, 1961 FIG-,1

I INVENTOR. JOSEPH AASHKOUTZ M w. Jv

ATTORNEY 12 I 1965 J. A. Asl aKoui'l I 65,359

WOVEN SUPPORT FOR FURNITURE Filed Sept. 26, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

ATTCZPN Y United States Patent 7 3,165,359 WOVEN SUPPGRT FER FURNITURE Joseph Albert Ashisouti, Atlanta, Ga, assiguor to Production Engineering Company, Austeil, (8a., a corporation of Georgia Filed ept. 26 1961, Ser. No. 146,845 2 Claims. (Cl. 297-445) This invention relates to a Woven support for furniture and particularly to the support portion of furniture of the sort which is made from open framework such as is found in certain types of indoor and outdoor furniture and wherein the support is constructed by weaving plastic strips or the like in a particular formation.

One type of furnitureconstruction employs tubular or other type of frame construction on which is placed a support for the back and bottom and other portions of the furniture. The support is usually made either from sheets of canvas or cloth or the like or else as is found in much conventional construction is constructed from strips of plastic material interwoven both vertically and horizontal in a warp and weft effect to create the body support portion of the furniture. This type of construction is found quite often in patio furniture and tubular aluminum furniture and the'like. The present invention is directed to that sort of furniture construction and relates to the particular construction of the Woven support whereby a better effect is created and more support is provided with less sag, but still at a very economical cost of construction.

Generally described, the present woven support frame is applicable to any sort of furniture construction which employs spaced members creating an open framework, such as tubular aluminum frames joined together to form chairs, cots, chaise lounges and other types of furniture. The present construction lends itself particularly to the use of conventional plastic materials such as produced by many manufacturers from vinyl plastic and for the vertical or warp elements are placed on the chair frame and fastened in place at both ends by means of screws or other suitable fastening element. These vertical or warp elements are of wide plastic or similar material spaced with an opening therebetween. The weft or fill elements comprises a continuous length of narrower plastic such as vinyl of the sort sometimes provided in a tubular construction flattened to provide a continuous strip. One end of the horizontal or weft is secured to the lower portion of the frame and the continuous strip is wrapped continuously around the frame at wide spaced intervals to provide the interlocked or interlacing portion of the frame. In actual construction, the method employed preferably would be to spiral wind the weft or horizontal elements by attaching one end of the continuous strip and rotating the frame to spiral wind the entire frame and then securing the other end in place. This is followed by interlacing the flat, wide strips of warp material in between the alternate strips of horizontal or weft material. The vertical or warp elements are secured with their ends attached on the back of the frame and with the surface on the front of the frame thereby pulling all of the material substantially to the front of the frame creating a very durable comfortable and substantially strong support. 7 An object of this invention is to provide a woven support for furniture of the sort employing open frame members.

A further object of this invention is to provide a woven support for furniture in which one of the elements either the Warp or the weft of the weave is made from a continuous strip of material such as vinyl plastic and the like.

An additional object of this invention resides in the provision of a woven support for furniture and which flat strips of material are anchored in place to form either the warp or weft and a continuous strip of material is used on the other thereof of the warp or weft.

Still another object of this invention resides in' the provision of a Woven support for furniture wherein the warp or weft of the woven support can be constructed by spiral winding a continuous strip of material such as plastic across one side of the furniture frame and then weaving individual flat strips of material, such as plastic, to form the other support across the other'side of the frame.

Other and further objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent upon reading the following specification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a folding armchair with a woven support constructed in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a rear elevation View of the chair shown in FIG. 1.

It is to be understood that the present invention may be applied to any sort of furniture which employs a frame on which the present woven support may be constructed. One type of furniture is the conventional outdoor patio furniture constructed from aluminum tubing and the like, but there are many other types of furniture which may employ the present invention, including wooden chair frames, yacht chairs, tropical furniture, and other types of furniture construction. In addition, while the present invention is shown in conjunction with a folding armchair of the aluminum patio type, it is to be understood that the same woven constructionmay be used on any type of furniture, such as chaise lounge, rigid armchairs, and cots or beds. In fact, the particular type of chair frame and the particular functional appearance and structural ararngement of the furniture frame itself is per se no part of the present invention, it being required only that there be some type of frame on which the present support may be placed.

Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional folding side armchair of the tubular aluminum construction is designated overall and generally by the reference numeral 10 and includes a back frame member 12 of tubular aluminum construction or the like in a generally rectangular formation and which is pivotally anchored on the opposite bottom sides 14 thereof to the seat frame 16 which also is of identical tubular aluminum construction to that of the back frame 12. The seat frame 16 is'supported for movement on a pair of ground engagement frames 18, 20 which in turn are pivotally attached by means of a link member 22 to the back frame 14. The top of the ground engagement frames 18, Ztl are closed by means of a double tubular arm rest member 24, 26 respectively. The foregoing construction is conventional construction in a folding, tubular aluminum side armchair and per se forms no part of the present invention. 7 V

' Back frame 12 is a substantially rectangular frame com-.;

prising a pair of substantially parallel side members '28, 30 which are attached at their bottoms to the links 22 and-also a top transverse and normally horizontal end member 32. Bottom frame 16 is very similar in construction with back frame 12 and comprises a pair of side members 34, 36 and a front end member 38. Back frame V 'Woven support substantially forward in the plane 'of the 12 is pivotally'connected with bottom frame 16 by means of a common, transverse connection rod 40 extend ng through the tubes of the frames. 7 1 V 'The woven support forthe back frame 12 and the bottom frame 16 comprises essentially two types of strips, the warp strips or elements 42 which normally run in asomewhatlongitudinal direction forming the back Y strips on the back member 12. Strips' iZ-may be conventional woven or otherwise formed wide strips from,

thereof at point 46 and the continuous strip 44 is spirally Wound across said tubular member '23 and thence back to tubular member 30 and around and thence back around member 28 and so on in a continuous and spiral wound formation-until the top portion of the frame 16 is reached, at'which point at point 48 the other terminal end of continuous strip 44 is anchored in place by a sheet metal screw or othersimilar fastening device 50. One method of performing this operation is prior to assembly of the back frame 12 and the bottom frame 16 the frames are placed on a mandrel or fixture and after the end 46 is attached in place, the entire frame is rotated and moved at the same time to spiral wind the continuous link 44in a very fast operation. In similar manner the strip 52: is spiral wound on the bottom frame 16, One end of the continuous strip 52 is anchored at the lower portion of'frame 16 and after the strip 52 is spiral Wound on the frame, the other terminalend is anchored at the front part of the frame underneath the, lower portion whereit does not show when the ..chair. isin normal use.

After. the continuous strip 44- has been spirally wound on the back frame 12 and is anchored in place and after the continuous strip 52 has been spirally .wound. in a similar fashion on the bottom frame 16 and is anchored firmly in place and following the assembly of thebacl; frame 12 and the bottom frame 16, the longitudinals or Warp' elements 42 are woven in place by inserting them through alternate rows of the weft or fill element formed in rows .by the'continuous strips 44, 5'2. As is readily seen in FIG. 2, one end Sdof thestrips .42 is anchoredin place out, of sight on the back oftthe frame 12 by means of a sheet metal screw 58 or other similar fastening device, and the flat strip 42 is woven through alternate rows of the spiral wound strip 44 down below the rod member 4t and islwoven through alternate rows of the spiral wound strip 52 tothe front edge 38 of frame 16 at which point underthe under surface' thereof, it. is anchored in place by means ofsa fastenerof some sort. Then, the next flat strip 42 is woven in a similar frame atthe front and the top of the bottom providing more comfort and more support to the body. In'one form of the invention, which is the preferred form shown in the drawings, the flat strips 42 are several size times the width of the continuous fill strips 44 thereby combin-' inga wide strip in the warp elements With a narrow'strip in the weft or fill elements 44 which are spaced apart providing a good support for the body, and at the same time creating an attractive appearance which lends an atmosphere of good quality to the chair makin'git usable both indoors-and outdoors without objectionable appearance. In the form shownin the drawings, :the weft or fill elements 4 4 and 52 arespiral wound around their respective frames 12 and 16 with a space between adjacent rows which is equivalent to not less than about twice thewidths of the fill or weftmaterial. The effect is i an open weave arrangement which provides plenty of ventilationspace for outdoor use, but at the same time presents an attractive appearance for indoor. or other uses. In addition, the construction provides a goodsubstantial support with less filler, or weft materialand also provides for morerapid insertion of the warp elements 42 in the fill matjeriaL-thereby :cutting production time,

and making a woven support more suitable for produc-. tion, whereas previously such an arrangement was generally prohibited from-aproduction standpoint While I have shown and described a particularembodiment of my invention together with suggested uses thereof and have specified many advantages and functional uses, this, is by way of illustration and is not;to beconstrued as any sort of limitation ohfthej. scope of myinvention rigid furniture frame-havingia backframe 'and a'bottom frame each with spaced side members and each of said i 7 side and bottom frames having end members associated with respective outer ends of said-back and bottom frames,

a weft of continuous tubular material spirally .wound transversely onsaid back and bottoni frames and'having one endattached at the end-of one of saidbac korbottom frames andt 1 other end attached to the end ofthe other" fashion but through different alternating rows of the spiral wound materials 44 and 52 and in. like fashion alternate strips 42 are woven throughalternate rows of both the back strips 44 andthe bottom stripsSZ. 7 It is to be noted that the strips 42 are on the front or upper side or upper across the back of the frameare pulled forward tothei front plane of the chair thereby bringing the completed the other on both the back and front thereof, anda plurality of individual warp strips substantially wider than said weftstrip materiaLeach of said warp strips being 7 attached at one end to one end of said frame and: being woven through said alternate Weftstrips and attached .at'

the other endof said'frame thereby to form warp elements woven through'said weft strips, said warp strips running over the front of said frame from b a ck to front thereby pulling said backwcft strips forward from: the

back toward the front when woven in place therein, the

width of said warp material being at least twice that of t the weft material. V r i '2. In a woven support for furniture, a substantially rigid furniture frame having a bottom and a backzframe each with'opposed spaced side'members andeach frame having an end member, a transverse member between said back frame and said bottomframe, a continuouslyspi'ral wound member of continuous material having one end attached near the end of one of said side members of one of said bottom or back frame members and being spirally wound I across said back'o'r bottom frame andaroundsaidother' side thereof and then fromside tozside spirallywound around said bottom and back frame, said other end of said continuous member being attached'to the top of said frame, thereby to form a pluralityof weft pstr ips run'ning frorn'one side of the frame to the other, on both the'ba ck and front thereof, and a plurality of individual warp strips substantially wider than said weft strip material, each of said warp strips being attached at one end to one end of said frame and being woven through said alternate weft strips and attached at the other end of said frame, thereby to form warp elements woven through said weft strips, said warp strips running over the front of said frame from back to front thereby pulling said back weft strips forward from the back toward the front when woven in place therein, the width of said warp material being at least twice that of the weft material, said weft material being wound about the frame with the space between adjacent rows equivalent to not less than about twice the width of said material.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 171,212 Buckley Dec. 21, 1875 2,737,232 Gruber Mar. 6, 1956 2,766,814 Sedlacek Oct. 16, 1956 3,021,176 Eads et al Feb. 13, 1962 3,038,758 Molla June 12, 1962 

1. IN A WOVEN SUPPORT FOR FURNITURE, A SUBSTANTIALLY RIGID FURNITURE FRAME HAVING A BACK FRAME AND A BOTTOM FRAME EACH WITH SPACED SIDE MEMBERS AND EACH OF SAID SIDE AND BOTTOM FRAMES HAVING END MEMBERS ASSOCIATED WITH RESPECTIVE OUTER ENDS OF SAID BACK AND BOTTOM FRAMES, A WEFT OF CONTINUOUS TUBULAR MATERIAL SPIRALLY WOUND TRANSVERSELY ON SAID BACK AND BOTTOM FRAMES AND HAVING ONE END ATTACHED AT THE END OF ONE OF SAID BACK OR BOTTOM FRAMES AND THE OTHER END ATTACHED TO THE END OF THE OTHER OF SAID BACK OR BOTTOM FRAMES, THEREBY TO FORM A PLURALITY OF WEFT STRIPS RUNNING FROM ONE SIDE OF THE FRAME TO THE OTHER ON BOTH THE BACK AND FRONT THEREOF, AND A PLURALITY OF INDIVIDUAL WARP STRIPS SUBSTANTIALLY WIDER THAN SAID WEFT STRIP MATERIAL, EACH OF SAID WARP STRIPS BEING ATTACHED AT ONE END TO ONE END OF SAID FRAME AND BEING WOVEN THROUGH SAID ALTERNATE WEFT STRIPS AND ATTACHED AT THE OTHER END OF SAID FRAME, THEREBY TO FORM WARP ELEMENTS WOVEN THROUGH SAID WEFT STRIPS, SAID WARP STRIPS RUNNING OVER THE FRONT OF SAID FRAME FROM BACK TO FRONT THEREBY PULLING SAID BACK WEFT STRIPS FORWARD FROM THE BACK TOWARD THE FRONT WHEN WOVEN IN PLACE THEREIN, THE WIDTH OF SAID WARP MATERIAL BEING AT LEAST TWICE THAT OF THE WEFT MATERIAL. 